It's great to be back in Washington, and to
see so many friends of New Zealand here today.

I attended
the first of these forums in April 2006 and each subsequent
gathering.

I want to reflect briefly on how the role of
this Forum has changed, just as the NZ/US relationship has
changed and continues to change.

In thanking all of those
who have contributed to the success and evolution of this
gathering over the past seven years, it is only honest to
observe that the Forum was created at a time when the formal
relationship between our two countries was suboptimal.

The Forum in 2006 was a vehicle to supplement it.

In
particular I want to thank our American friends who gave up
their time and spent their capital in order to invest in the
NZ/US relationship.

And I want to acknowledge the
significant role the Forum has played in achieving the
substantial transition in NZ/US relations that has occurred
in recent years.

We live in a different world in 2013.

Formal relations between our two countries are excellent.

We have found a new normal.

Last year we hosted 100
marines in New Zealand to thank the US for your support at a
critical time in World War II and to engage in several weeks
of exercises.

Joint exercises are now routine.

And
this month, for the first time in nearly 30 years, a New
Zealand Navy vessel will visit a US military port in Guam -
another milestone in the normalisation of that aspect of NZ/
US relations.

So unlike some previous occasions, I do not
intend to talk at length about the relationship.

Just as
couples tend to spend a good deal of time talking about
their relationship when they have issues, I do not intend to
do so, because we do not have issues.

Just as the formal
relationship is now one in which we spend our time talking
about the opportunities to work together and add value, so
too must the role of this Forum change.

That is
especially true as we stand at the threshold of TPP, as my
colleague Tim Groser will discuss tomorrow.

So I want to
reflect very briefly on a few of New Zealand's wider foreign
policy concerns and focus on how our two countries are
adding value, and can continue to add value, by working
together.

First I want to identify, especially for
American friends, just how much New Zealand has changed in
the seven years since this Forum first met in 2006.

For
all of our history we have regarded our geography - far away
from our traditional markets in Europe - as our major
strategic disadvantage.

Now we live in the Asia Pacific
Century and our geography, on the rim of Asia, has become
our major strategic advantage.

Seven years ago our
exports to China were less than NZ$2 billion, well behind
Australia and the US.

Today, our exports to China top
NZ$7 billion, and in the first quarter of 2013 they actually
passed, temporarily I am sure, exports to our largest
market, Australia.

In South East Asia our exports are
nearly NZ$4.5 billion a year - about the same as the US, but
rising sharply from NZ$2.9 billion in 2006.

In both
cases, China and ASEAN, high quality FTAs have provided the
impetus.

But the improvements in trade and economic
relations have also been mirrored by a boost to diplomatic
relations, and in education, tourism, cultural and sporting
exchanges.

We invest heavily in our diplomatic relations
in the region and are unashamedly proud of our good
relationships.

In that sense I should acknowledge that
being small certainly helps - but to the word small I hope
we could add others, like professional, respectful,
constructive and friendly.

I know that some will ask
whether success in our relationship with China has been at
the cost of our commitment to core values like democracy and
human rights, or to important matters like the contested
South China Sea.

I want to be clear that we do not try to
paper over differences in our perspectives on such issues.

We discuss them openly and honestly - but respectfully
and constructively.

Where we have different methods of
working, we try to understand each other.

That is the
reason we now partner with China in an aid project in the
Pacific, and have agreed to discuss wider development
cooperation.

We have been extremely supportive of the US
decision in recent years to invest more heavily in Asia, and
especially the decision to join the regional conversations
at the East Asia Summit.

And we believe the decisions we
have both made to become more invested in Asia provide a
range of new opportunities for close cooperation.

This
sort of cooperation will be a key feature of my meeting with
Secretary Kerry today, as it will be at the NZ/US Strategic
Dialogue among senior officials later this week.

We
believe that closer US engagement in Asia, including through
TPP, will make the region both more prosperous and more
secure.

Elsewhere in the world there are also
opportunities for us to add value through greater
cooperation.

The existing high level of cooperation in
the Pacific, in South East Asia, in Afghanistan, in
Antarctica and the Ross Sea, is well known to this audience.

But I hope the enhanced dialogue we now have will see us
cooperate in new places.

Here I do not mean to gloss over
the obvious differences in size and weight.

I want to
acknowledge the obvious but often unstated fact that the
world so frequently expects the US as the only global
superpower to carry the cost, both in cash and in
casualties, of preserving stability and security in the
troublespots of the world.

But just as there are so many
things that only the US can do because you are large and
powerful, there are others that countries like New Zealand
can do only because we are not.

I take this opportunity
to commend Secretary Kerry for the significant attention he
has brought to the Middle East Peace Process.

New Zealand
has, with others, been calling for the strongest US
leadership on this matter, as the window for a two state
solution draws dangerously more closed.

But we are not
asking you to do it alone.

We all have a huge stake in
defusing the dispute that carries the seeds of wider
conflict in the region and beyond.

New Zealand has been
engaged in the MFO, maintaining peace in the Sinai for over
30 years, and one of our generals is currently in command.

We are engaged in a demining project on the West Bank,
because we have worked hard to maintain the trust of both
Israelis and Palestinians.

We even provide rugby coaching
to teams in both Jerusalem and Ramallah.

New Zealand and
many other countries want to actively support Secretary
Kerry in finding a way to achieve a two state settlement in
the Middle East in the narrow window that is left.

Finally, I turn to our own region, the Pacific.

Making
our contribution to maintaining stability and security in a
Pacific that suffers significantly at the hands of both the
Global Financial Crisis and climate change is a major
preoccupation.

The region consumes around 60% of our aid
budget and a good deal of diplomatic time and energy.

A
leadership role in the Pacific is a key aspect of our
international personality, and an essential element of our
value proposition to our friends and partners.

Our key
objective in recent months has been to move the region from
about 5% of electricity generated from renewable means to
around 50% in the next five years.

Currently diesel to
generate electricity makes up around 10% of the GDP of
Pacific countries and around 25% of their total import
bills.

In partnership with the EU, we have just hosted a
conference of donors to assemble NZ $635 million to support
the 40 projects that would move the region close to the 50%
mark.

Maintaining security and stability in the region is
a responsibility we share especially with our Australian
friends.

With partners, we have now completed lengthy
commitments in both the Solomon Islands and Timor Leste,
with the focus now moving from security to development.

We currently chair the Forum's Ministerial Contact Group
on Fiji.

We visited Suva last month and will visit again
in July.

I am confident there will be elections in Fiji
in 2014 - the question now being asked is whether they will
be free and fair.

We continue to walk the fine line that
sees us remaining engaged and supporting the elections
process, whilst continuing to ask the questions the
international community would expect to be asked about the
quality of that process.

This is indeed a complex task,
and it is pleasing that our region remains able to deal with
such a significant challenge in such a cooperative way.

We have worked very closely with the US over the past two
years to complete the US Pacific Tuna Treaty re-negotiation.

We are almost there.

A healthy tuna fishery is
arguably the most valuable asset the region currently owns.

Around US$2.8 billion per year of tuna is taken from the
EEZs of the 14 Pacific nations.

Around US$200 million
finds its way back to the nations that own the resource.

We are working hard to improve these percentages and the
US Tuna Treaty will be an important step in that direction.

About US$500 million of tuna a year is taken from the
Pacific zone illegally.

The US, in cooperation with
Australia, France and New Zealand, plays an important part
in improving surveillance and management of the region.

New Zealand greatly values the more prominent US interest
in the Pacific Islands.

The attendance of former
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Pacific Islands
Forum Leaders' meeting in the Cook Islands last year was a
powerful signal of US engagement in the region.

I look
forward to my discussions with Secretary Kerry later this
morning, where cooperation in the Pacific features on our
agenda, including of course, this year's Pacific Islands
Forum Leaders' meeting, which will take place in Majuro, in
the Marshall Islands, one of the US Compact states.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have come a long way in the
seven years since this Forum first met.

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